SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — July 12, 2013 — At this week’s Cloud Identity Summit 2013, nearly 800 people descended upon the Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa, California to hear plenaries and session tracks covering a broad range of identity issues, standards and real-world use cases.

Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity, opened the conference yesterday with observations on identity, where it’s been and how an “Identity Layer” will enable great things in a future where people, devices, applications and the Internet of Things are all connected. He shared examples from his personal and professional life to illustrate each point while providing a glimpse into a future where identity enables a frictionless and secure experience.

“Physical and virtual worlds are converging, everything is connected and findable, and devices and applications are getting smarter,” Durand stated. “Identity must be embedded throughout the connected experience, and as we build this foundation of the future, now is the time for identity.”

Gunnar Peterson, chief technology officer for Artec Group, discussed how identity is the new currency, stating, “Identity has inherent value, for consumers and for criminals. We need to increase identity's flexibility for users and companies while limiting its utility for criminals.” Through examples ranging from the 2008 financial crisis to a hamburger chain’s menu, Gunnar talked about the security of systems in context, while emphasizing the need for simplicity for mass adoption of a complex system such as identity. He stressed the importance of simplicity in everything we do in identity -- brain-dead simple to integrate to desktops, development platforms, etc. or it will not succeed at scale, claiming that, “everything we think of as a computer today is really just a device that connects to the big computer that we are collectively building. Let’s collectively build security in.”

Patrick Harding, chief technology officer for Ping Identity, examined what it takes for modern identity to be successful. Specifically, identity must target mobile and Web applications, address the shift to an API economy, and support applications in both public and private clouds. Harding argued the requirement of an identity protocol stack that is embedded in every application: OAuth, OpenID Connect and SCIM.

“These protocols set the foundation for a cloud-scale identity layer, and for this identity infrastructure to scale, we must eliminate administrative friction, automate connections and ensure self-service enablement for developers is the default,” said Harding.

Colin Kincaid, vice president, Cisco, discussed programmable networks and their role in enterprise identity infrastructure. As enterprise identity paradigms change, there are real architectural opportunities in the opening of the network environment, making it fully transparent with APIs that span the service stack. While providing a glimpse into the future, Kincaid discussed the first step in this network transformation as creating an “application zero sign-on” experience for cloud services, leveraging network intelligence for optimal business agility. Kincaid claimed that “Now we can create a user experience based on who you are, what device you’re on and where you are. The time is ripe for identity.”

The fourth annual Cloud Identity Summit will help define the future of security in a world where identity is the new perimeter and showcase the latest technologies and solutions from the leading implementers and industry luminaries. Attendees will learn more about the future of identity and access management while obtaining best practices from and networking with identity and security leaders. Box, Centrify, Covisint, Google, Identropy, Nok Nok Labs, Radiant Logic, and SailPoint sponsor Cloud Identity Summit 2013.

Ping Identity believes secure professional and personal identities underlie human progress in a connected world. Our identity and access management platform gives enterprise customers and employees one-click access to any application from any device. Over 1,000 companies, including half of the Fortune 100, rely on our award-winning products to make the digital world a better experience for hundreds of millions of people. Visit pingidentity.com for more information.